Lalanga

An unfilled yeast dough dropped straight into deep fat, then taken either sweet with honey or savoury with cheese.

Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

the dough

• 500 g plain flour
• 300 ml warm water
• 7 g fast-action dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 10 g salt

to fry

• 1 litre sunflower oil

to serve, one or the other

• 150 g honey
• or 200 g white cheese, crumbled

Method

1. IT IS AN UNFILLED YEAST DOUGH DROPPED STRAIGHT INTO DEEP FAT, and the plainness is the dish rather than an omission. No filling, no sugar in the dough, no shaping beyond pulling a piece flat between the hands. What comes out is a blistered, chewy flatbread, crisp at the edges and soft through the middle -- and it is then taken EITHER sweet, with honey poured over, OR savoury, with white cheese. Both are correct and it is the same bread; this is the rare page where the dish is finished two ways and neither is the variant.
2. THE DOUGH IS WET AND IS PULLED, NOT ROLLED. A slack dough, and each piece stretched between the hands to a rough disc a few millimetres thick, with the thickness left uneven. Rolled out evenly with a pin it fries into something flat and uniform; pulled, the thin parts blister and crisp while the thicker middle stays soft, and that contrast is the whole texture.
3. IT GOES INTO THE OIL STRAIGHT FROM THE HANDS. No resting once stretched. A stretched piece left on the board for even a few minutes shrinks back and seals, and fries dense.
4. THE OIL IS AT 180°C AND THE PIECE IS HELD DOWN FOR A MOMENT. Slipped in and pressed under with a spoon for two or three seconds so it fries submerged and puffs evenly, then released. Dropped in and left floating, the top half steams instead of frying and stays pale and doughy.
5. SWEET OR SAVOURY IS DECIDED AFTER FRYING AND NEVER BEFORE. Honey over the hot bread, or cheese crumbled onto it while it is hot enough to soften. Sugar in the dough would burn in the oil at this temperature, which is precisely why the dough is plain.
6. The flour, yeast, sugar and salt mixed with the warm water to a WET, slack dough.
7. Kneaded in the bowl 8 MINUTES with a wet hand and risen 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES.
8. The oil heated to 180°C.
9. A piece of dough torn off and PULLED between the hands to a rough disc a few mm thick, left UNEVEN.
10. Slipped into the oil STRAIGHT AWAY and HELD UNDER with a spoon for 2 or 3 SECONDS.
11. Fried about 1 MINUTE a side, until blistered and golden.
12. Lifted onto kitchen paper.
13. FINISHED ONE WAY OR THE OTHER: honey poured over while hot, or white cheese crumbled on while hot.
14. TESTED: the thin edges should be crisp and the middle still soft. Uniformly flat and dense means it was rolled rather than pulled.
15. Eaten at once.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes